The trade deadline is July 31, and as trades are made, experts and so-called experts will rush to tell you who "won" the trade. In reality, it can take years to determine who really came away with the better end of a deal.

So Sporting News is hopping in the WABAC machine to revisit the 10 biggest trades from the week leading up to the 2009 trade deadline.

Holliday was worth 2.3 WAR in 63 games for the Cardinals down the stretch in 2009, a season that ended with St. Louis losing to the Dodgers in the division series. Mortensen was below replacement level for the A’s and eventually traded to the Rockies for Ethan Hollingsworth, who never made it to the majors. Peterson appeared in two games for the A’s last year, going 1-for-7, and is having a nice year in Triple-A this season, with a .322/.394/.496 line and eight home runs for Sacramento at the age of 26. Wallace never played a game for Oakland, as he was traded to Toronto for Michael Taylor in December 2009. The A’s got 26 games out of Taylor over the past three seasons before trading him to the White Sox last month for Single-A pitcher Jake Sanchez, a 24-year-old right-hander who is unlikely to make a major league impact.

So, even had the Cardinals not re-signed Holliday, the deal would have been a landslide win for St. Louis. As it is, Holliday has been worth an additional 18.1 WAR for the Cardinals since deciding to remain in St. Louis, with three All-Star appearances and a huge NLCS performance en route to the 2011 world championship.

Lee went 7-4 with a 3.39 ERA in his 12 starts for the Phillies after they acquired him, a 1.1 WAR performance that was completely overshadowed by his brilliance in the playoffs, which included both of Philadelphia’s wins in a World Series loss to the Yankees. Francisco was slightly under replacement level for the Phillies through 2011, then was traded to Toronto for Frank Gailey, who pitched in the low levels of the Philadelphia farm system for only a few months in 2012 before heading back to the Blue Jays.

The Phillies traded Lee after the 2009 season, sending him to Seattle for Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and J.C. Ramirez. Only Aumont has contributed anything of note to the Phillies organization, with a decent performance in 18 relief appearances in 2012, but he’s been a horror show since then.

As for the Indians’ return, Carrasco has been a disappointment, with 0.5 career WAR, while Marson was a 2.2 WAR player over parts of five seasons as Cleveland’s backup catcher before being allowed to walk as a minor league free agent. Knapp never made the major leagues.

Donald was a 1.3 WAR player from 2010-12, then the Indians traded him to the Reds as part of a three-team deal with the Diamondbacks that saw Matt Albers, Trevor Bauer, Bryan Shaw, and Drew Stubbs wind up in Cleveland. Shin-Soo Choo was the main piece of that trade, with Donald one of the filler pieces in a deal that involved nine players.

Winner: Phillies. The Indians actually got more WAR from their side of the deal, but for what they were expecting to get out of a Lee trade, it was a disappointment, and Philadelphia got a vital piece of a pennant-winning team.

Snell was below replacement level for the Mariners through the end of the 2010 season, then never returned to the major leagues. Wilson was decent for the Mariners, worth 3.1 WAR in his tenure there, then was dealt to the Braves in 2011 for Luis Caballero, a Panamanian infielder who has played this season for three low-level minor league teams in the Seattle system, none above high-A. He’s still only 21, but Caballero’s bat has not developed, as he has a .543 OPS for those three teams.

Cedeno played the best baseball of his career in Pittsburgh, although that’s not saying a ton – he had a .663 OPS and was worth 1.3 WAR in two-plus seasons with the Pirates before departing as a free agent. The Pirates lost Adcock to the Royals in the 2010 Rule 5 draft and got sub-replacement level performance from Clement in 77 games from 2010-12. Lorin and Pribanic never made the major leagues.

Winner: Mariners. Wilson was the best player in the deal and turned into someone who, while an extreme longshot to ever see the majors, is the only player with ties to the trade still involved with either organization.

Josh Harrison (AP Photo)

July 30: Pirates traded Tom Gorzelanny and John Grabow to Cubs for Jose Ascanio, Josh Harrison and Kevin Hart

Gorzelanny was brutally awful for the Cubs in the 2009 stretch run, with a 5.63 ERA in 38.1 innings. He was better in 2010, then got traded to the Nationals for Michael Burgess, Graham hicks, and A.J. Morris, zero of whom remain in the Chicago organization. Grabow was good down the stretch in 2009, worth 0.6 WAR in just 25 innings, then horrendous the next two seasons, his last two in the majors.

Ascanio had a couple of cups of coffee with the Pirates, but amounted to nothing in the majors. Hart went 1-8 with a 6.92 ERA in 10 appearances at the end of 2009, then never pitched another major league inning.

That leaves one player from the deal, Harrison. All he’s done is develop into an All-Star this year, at the age of 27. He’s also the only player from the trade to make a playoff appearance for one of the teams in the deal. The Cubs probably did not see that coming.

Carter never made it past Single-A. Poreda pitched 2.1 innings for the Padres in 2009, went to the Pirates in the 2011 Rule 5 draft, and only returned to the majors this year with the Rangers. Richard was part of the San Diego rotation through last year, albeit at a total of 0.4 WAR – less than he was worth in parts of two seasons with the White Sox. Russell pitched a total of 28 innings of relief for the Padres over parts of two seasons, then was part of the deal that brought Jason Bartlett to San Diego – a disaster trade for the Padres, giving up four players for someone they released before the end of the following season.

All Peavy had to do to win the trade for the White Sox was not get run over by a bus. He was an All-Star for Chicago in 2012, worth 9.9 WAR over the course of his tenure there, and last year was traded to Boston in a three-team trade, bringing Avisail Garcia, Fracellis Montas, Cleuluis Rondon, and Jeffrey Wendelken in return.

Winner: White Sox

July 31: Braves traded Casey Kotchman to Red Sox for Adam LaRoche

Kotchman hit .218/.284/.287 in 39 games for the Red Sox, then was traded in the offseason to the Mariners for Bill Hall, who hit .247/.316/.456 for the 2010 Red Sox before moving on in free agency. LaRoche was a 2.0 WAR player for the Braves in 57 games, hitting .325/.401/.557 with 12 home runs. He then signed with the Diamondbacks as a free agent.

Winner: Braves, although Hall being a 1.8 WAR player in his one season in Boston maybe makes it a little closer, as does the fact that the Red Sox made the 2009 playoffs while the Braves did not. Still, in a straight-up swap of first basemen who only played with their teams through the end of the season, Atlanta won handily.

Rolen played out the rest of his career in Cincinnati, and played pretty well, making a pair of All-Star teams and valuing out at 7.6 WAR over three seasons plus that last chunk of 2009, with a pair of playoff appearances. He was a nice acquisition, a veteran presence with years left on his contract who still had plenty to contribute.

Encarnacion had shown promise with the Reds, hitting 26 home runs with an ops of .807 in 2008, but he had struggled in 2009 when the Reds traded him, and there was no guarantee he would replicate the success of his age 25 season. Maybe he needed to go somewhere else to realize his full potential, and boy has he done that since 2012, as he is currently on his way to a third straight 30-homer season, and would have to be considered an MVP candidate if Mike Trout did not exist.

There’s something that everyone forgets about Encacnacion, though: the Blue Jays lost him to the A’s on waivers after the 2010 season, but Oakland wound up non-tendering him, and Encarnacion only returned to the Blue Jays (without having played a game for anyone else) as a free agent. So, Toronto actually can’t claim Encarnacion’s three monster seasons as part of the return for Rolen.

Roenicke never amounted to anything and the Blue Jays lost him on waivers, but Stewart was part of the trade that brought Edwin Jackson to Toronto from the Chicago White Sox, then Jackson was part of the deal that landed Colby Rasmus for the Blue Jays. Those were multi-player deals, but having roots in the Rolen swap does add value to the trade for Toronto.

Winner: Push. The Reds got what they expected, but gave up a player who turned into a star. The Blue Jays can’t fully claim that stardom, but there’s also the partial connection to getting Rasmus to Toronto.

Martinez was legitimately awesome during his year and change in Boston, hitting .313/.368/.497 with 28 homers in 183 games, and earning an All-Star berth in 2010 before moving on to Detroit as a free agent, a move that got the Red Sox a pair of draft picks – Matt Barnes and Henry Owens – as compensation. Barnes has moved up the minor league ladder, but struggled at both Double-A last year and Triple-A this year, but Owens, who turned 22 this week, has torn up Double-A this year, going 13-3 with a 2.25 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 112 innings. He was in the Futures Game at the All-Star break.

Masterson looked like he was on the verge of becoming an ace last year, when he was an All-Star for a playoff team, but has struggled mightily this season, while Hagadone has been on the Triple-A shuttle for a few years now, serving as just about the definition of replacement level. Price still is waiting to get his chance in the major leagues at the age of 27, having pitched effectively between Double-A and Triple-A since 2012.

Winner: The jury is still out. Right now, on a total WAR basis, the Indians would have an edge thanks to Masterson, whose 2011 WAR (4.1) actually was better than his WAR last year (3.4) or Martinez’s in 2010 (3.6). But the Red Sox knew at the time of the deal that if they didn’t re-sign Martinez after 2010, they would be likely to get draft pick compensation, and those two pitchers are inexorably tied to this trade. The futures of Barnes and Owens, not to mention Masterson, will complete the story.

July 31: Tigers traded Lucas French and Mauricio Robles to Mariners for Jarrod Washburn

Washburn went 1-3 with a 7.33 ERA in eight starts for the Tigers, who lost the AL Central by one game to Minnesota. In 43 innings, Washburn’s WAR for Detroit was negative-0.7. He struck out 21, walked 16, and gave up 12 home runs in 43 innings. In fewer words: getting Washburn was an unmitigated disaster for the Tigers.

French pitched 125.2 innings for the Mariners through the end of 2010, to the tune of a negative-0.4 WAR, as he gave up 22 home runs while striking out 60 batters and walking 46. Basically, the Tigers could have kept him and probably gotten what they got out of Washburn.

Robles went to the Phillies on waivers in 2012, and gave up three runs (one earned) over 4.2 innings in three relief appearances last year. He is currently on the disabled list for the White Sox’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte.

Winner: Twins.

July 31: Yankees traded Chase Weems to Reds for Jerry Hairston

Hairston hit .237/.352/.382 in 93 plate appearances over 45 games for the Yankees, and was 2-for-8 in the playoffs. One of those two hits was a single to lead off the bottom of the 13th inning of Game 2 of the ALCS, and Hairston came around to score on Maicer Izturis’ error. The Yankees won that series in six games, then won the World Series in six more. Hairston got a ring and featured in a key playoff moment.